Eulogy for The Tower of Terror

Hollywoodland – the name conjures up the glamor age of the movies when the stars’ personal lives were shrouded in a lack of media attention and the movies were in the middle of having their greatest impact on American and world culture. Hollywoodland is set in the days before television, and it is the perfect setting for The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, which tells the story of a hotel elevator that gets zapped by lightning and sends a couple of stars to regions beyond.

What makes the Tower of Terror even more iconic is that it is told in the voice of television’s greatest writer, Rod Serling. Serling mastered the plot twist, and his series The Twilight Zone started the age of syndication. His iconic delivery of narration is still mimicked. So, picture if you will…

Disney has announced that The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney California Adventure will be getting a makeover. The new theme will be based on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which until it made about $775 million, was a joke of film about characters you never heard of.

Not only does this series lack the gravitas and power of one of the top television series of all time, as series that still has 24 hour marathons and touches on themes that are just as relevant today as they were when the show came out, but it also does not fit the theming of Hollywoodland. While Guardians of the Galaxy may feature in Marvel’s plans for the next decade, it isn’t nearly as great as Rod Serling and his mastery of story. It is unfortunate that Disney has decided to do away with the tribute to Serling, a man without whom The Twilight Zone, and its influencing power, would have never existed.

Goodbye, Tower of Terror. I’m sorry you gave been dropped from Disney’s attraction list. Here’s to hoping that Guardians of the Galaxy can help you rise to new levels.